BIRD NOTES

Thursday

Jan 3, 2013 at 3:15 AMJan 3, 2013 at 9:18 AM

by Tom Chase

BARRINGTON — There’s a raging blizzard as I write this, hoping that the power doesn’t go out, as so often happens. But it’s snug inside the house: the woodstove’s in full song, and the coffee’s hot. However, I fear for the little birds that seem dependent on my keeping the feeders filled and snow-free. Of course, they probably are more adept at enduring snowstorms than I or most modern humans would be—imagine trying to survive by our wits, outside in these conditions. For some reason I often think about the Native Americans who once lived on these lands: they knew how to cope with winter.

Woodpeckers seem to be well-adapted to winter’s cold. They probably roost at night and, during storms, in the same secure nest hole they excavated last spring or in years past. And it surely helps if there’s a human nearby who maintains a suet feeder with a food supply to their liking, since the insects they devour in the warmer months are harder to find.

We are lucky in our area to have several woodpecker species: Downy, Hairy, Pileated, Northern Flicker, and Red-bellied. Perusing last year’s Lee-Durham (which includes the Times readership area) Christmas Bird Count, the look-alike Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers were most abundant, with 90 small Downys and 41 larger Hairys reported. Only seven big Pileateds were tallied, but although they are year-round residents, they prefer deep woods and only visit the feeders of a fortunate few. The Flicker is more of a summertime bird, and only one was reported, although in other years they have been more. And finally comes the Red-bellied. This lovely bird was not even listed in NH Audubon’s 1994 Breeding Bird Atlas; now they are becoming “common” in our area, and 16 were tallied in the CBC.

There are others. The Black-backed Woodpecker is found in the northern part of the state, and a few Three-toeds. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is another summer bird; one is more apt to see evidence of its presence—a series of tiny holes in a tree trunk—than the secretive bird itself. And occasionally one sees a report of a Red-headed Woodpecker. Only two nests were listed in the Atlas, which is a little surprising since Red-heads are opportunistic feeders, consuming a variety of edibles. I have seen only two in N.H., one at White Lake State Park, the other on a cornstalk in my Madbury garden. They are more common in the mid-West, having made a comeback from the days when they were shot for excavating nesting holes in telephone poles.

Audubon

At the Wednesday, Jan. 9 meeting of Seacoast Audubon, members Jason Lambert, Ben Griffith, and Lauren Kras will tell of their 10,000-mile journey by car to Texas and Florida to look for birds (while escaping the snow and cold). They tallied some 200 life birds and will share some of their photos and stories. The meeting will be held at the Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne State Park in Rye, and begins at 7:30 p.m. with refreshments at 7 p.m.

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